clause, as the President of the United
States recommends, and you can carry the Republican Union party
every-where, and with unanimity.

"The President of the United States 'a despot' for exercising a
constitutional right in vetoing a bill passed by Congress! Mr.
President, had the Senator from Ohio occupied the position which is
occupied by President Johnson, in my judgment, he would have vetoed
the Civil Rights Bill. 'A despot!' What is the exercise of the veto
power? It amounts merely to a vote to reconsider, with the lights
given in his reasons for the veto. When before has the exercise of a
constitutional right justified a political friend of the President of
the United States in denouncing that President as a despot and a
dictator? He has been and is now, in my judgment, as anxious to
harmonize the difficulties in the Union party as any Senator upon this
floor. If he was met in the same spirit, that party would be reunited
and this Union would be restored. His advances are met by insult; his
advances are met by denunciation from the leader of the Republican
party upon this floor in language without a parallel. Mr. President,
so far as I am concerned, I propose to-day and hereafter to take my
position alongside the President of the Republican party, and stand
there unflinchingly so long as he remains faithful to the principles
of that party, defending him against the Senator from Ohio as I
defended his predecessor against the same Senator."

Mr. Lane then expressed his desire that his proposition should lie
upon the table and be printed. An order having been entered to that
effect, Mr. Wade addressed the Senate. He remarked: "It is said I made
an attack on the President of the United States. As a Senator upon
this floor, I care no more about the opinions of the President of the
United States than I do about those of any respectable Senator upon
this floor, or any Senator on this floor. Who is your President, that
every man must bow to his opinion? Why, sir, we all know him; he is no
stranger to this body. We have measured him; we know his height, his
depth, his length, his breadth, his capacity, and all about him. Do
you set him up as a paragon and declare here on the floor of this
Senate that you are going to make us all bow down before him? Is that
the idea? You [to Mr. Lane, of Kansas,] are going to be his apologist
and defender in whatever he may propose to do! Is that the
understanding of the Senator from Ka